19th Telecommunications forum TELFOR 2011 Serbia, Belgrade, November 22-24, 2011.

Time domain transmission sensors for soil

moisture measurements
Bianca Will, Member, IEEE

 pulse. Especially the feeding line which connects this

Abstract Delay time measurements, e.g. time domain
reflectometry (TDR), are a well-established method for the
measurement of permittivity in various materials, especially
in soils. However, the accuracy offered by common TDR
measurements is limited due to multiple reflections caused by
the material under test.
This contribution deals with new sensor designs for the
characterization of soil moisture using time domain
transmission (TDT) measurements. The basis of the
advanced TDT technique is a new waveguide concept, which
offers the possibility to perform transmission measurements
in soils. Thus multiple reflections along the waveguide do not
influence the measurement accuracy. By using a so-called
concentric reversion coupler TDT measurements can be
performed without a measuring port at the end of the sensor.
Keywords material characterization, soil moisture, time
domain reflectometry
I. INTRODUCTION
second measuring port causes measurement errors.
This contribution deals with an improved probe design
which enables transmission measurements in soils without
the necessity of a second measuring port and the
corresponding feeding line inside the material under test.
Concerning this improved sensor design, which is based
on a one-wire line, a so-called concentric reversion
coupler was developed. This concentric reversion coupler
leads the transmitted signal back to the feed port in the
inner part of the one-wire line. Hence, both measuring
ports can be placed on the top of the sensor and thus,
transmission measurements are easy to realize.
Thus the measurement accuracy can be increased
compared with commonly used TDR-sensors.
Furthermore, the TDT system which is used to perform the
delay time measurements is based on a typical TDR
system. In this case an existing TDR system is extended

T HERE are several well-established techniques

available for the determination of the permittivity in
homogeneous and inhomogeneous materials [1]. They all
by a second measuring port to enable delay time
transmission measurements. Hence, fast and cost effective
measurements can be performed.
have in common that their measurement results are limited
to the mean value of the permittivity of the respective II. FUNCTIONAL PRINCIPLE
material of interest. Due to the existing relation between Delay time measurements are commonly used for the
the permittivity and the moisture of a material probe [2], determination of soil moisture, due to the dependence of
permittivity measurements become a commonly used the propagation velocity of electromagnetic waves on the
method for the determination of the water content of soils dielectric permittivity. Concerning the water content of
[1]. Furthermore it is already known that a dielectric soils permittivity measurements are usually performed in a
profile can be determined by using a time-domain inverse frequency range up to 3 GHz, which results from the
scattering technique [3]. extraordinary dielectric properties of water at lower
Nevertheless, the measurement accuracy of such time frequencies as shown in Fig. 1.
domain reflectometry (TDR) measurements is limited due
to multiple reflections along the probe. In contrast to this
the measurement accuracy of time domain transmission
(TDT) measurements is not influenced by existing
multiple reflections. This results from the fact that the first
transmitted pulse already includes the necessary
information. Multiple reflections, which can occur along
the sensor, have longer delay times. Thus these multiple
reflections can be eliminated by using time gating
methods.
In fact, transmission measurements in soils or bulk Fig. 1: Real part and imaginary part of the permittivity of
materials are difficult to realize regarding the second pure water versus frequency.
measuring port, which is needed to detect the transmitted
Concerning lossy dielectrics a complex permittivity
H r H r ' jH r ' ' yields the following relation for the
Bianca Will is with the Institute of Microwave Systems, Ruhr- measured delay time tmeas in the investigated material [4]:
University Bochum, Universitaetsstr. 150, 44801 Bochum, Germany
(phone: +49-234-3226983; e-mail: Bianca.will@rub.de).

978-1-4577-1500-6/11/$26.00 2011 IEEE 16

 2
lmeas Hr ' H ''
tmeas 1  r  1 , (1)
c0 2 Hr '

where lmeas is given by the measuring length and c0
represents the speed of light. Thus a measured delay time
directly yields the so-called apparent permittivity a of the
investigated material, which is given as follows:

2
Hr ' H ''
Ha 1  r  1 . (2) Fig. 3 Determined permittivity (mean value) inside a
2 H
r
' layered material.

Due to the fact, that soils consist of numerous materials,
III. SENSOR DESIGN
mixing rules [5] are needed, to determine the volume
fractions of the single materials or the water content, Transmission measurements in soils imply several
respectively. In fact, for an application of most of the requirements. Especially with regard to the sensor design
mixing rules further information like conductivity or a compact and minimal invasive design is necessary, due
density are necessary. In contrast to this an empirically to the fact that measuring ports inside the investigated
determined mixing rule for the determination of the water material are difficult to realize. Additionally, a high
content based on the apparent permittivity a is given in penetration depth is beneficial to increase the investigated
[6]: volume fraction. Hence, the described sensor makes use of
H a 3.03  9.3T  146T 2  76.7T 3 (3) an one-wire line, which is inserted into the material under
test. This one-wire line is fed by a coaxial line.
The popularity of this empirical relation depends on the
Due to the requirements for soil moisture
fact, that no further information except the apparent
measurements, all external feeding lines have to be placed
permittivity is necessary to determine the water content of
in the inner part of the sensor. To deal with this challenge
mineral soils. Thus, the apparent permittivity and the
a so-called concentric reversion coupler is developed,
water content respectively can be determined by
which mainly consists of two concentric coaxial lines. In
measuring the delay time of an electromagnetic pulse.
this case the inner coaxial line is placed inside the one-
Delay time measurements can be subdivided in TDT
wire and the outer coaxial line is used to transmit a signal
measurements and TDR measurements. As already
onto the one-wire line as shown in Fig. 4.
mentioned, the accuracy of TDR measurements is limited
due to multiple reflections caused by the investigated
material. To validate this assumption, an electromagnetic
simulation inside layered materials is performed for TDR
and TDT measurements. In this case a two-wire line is
inserted in a layered material as shown in Fig. 2.

Fig. 4: Schematic of a concentric reversion coupler.

In this case both coaxial lines have equal line

Fig. 2: Schematic assembly of the simulated layered
material.
For the investigation of the influence of multiple
reflections on the measurement accuracy layer III, with a
permittivity of r=20, is displaced in the surrounding
material with a permittivity of r=3. Based on the delay
time, the mean value of the permittivity of the surrounding
is determined of every layer position as shown in Fig. 3.
These results show, that the measurement accuracy of
TDR measurements is decreased due to multiple
reflections caused by the layered surrounding material. In
contrast to this, the TDT results only show a small
variation caused by the different layers. Hence, TDT
measurements offer advantages concerning permittivity
measurements in inhomogeneous materials like soils.
impedances and the distance d is numerically optimized to
achieve a good matching. Within the regarded frequency
range up to 3 GHz a matching better than 26 dB is
obtained.
Furthermore a filter structure at the beginning of the
sensor is needed to separate the signals on the concentric
coaxial lines. This delay time filter makes use of one
further coaxial line to separate the two signals.
Additionally, a discontinuity, the so-called obstacle, is
placed on the one-wire line to increase its diameter and
thus, increase the influence of the surrounding material on
the measured delay time. The resulting sensor design is
shown in Fig. 5.
The realized prototype, which is also shown in Fig. 5,
has a length of 26 cm and a diameter of 4.5 cm,
respectively. For measurement purposes the realized
prototype is sealed and thus protected by a thin plastic
tube to avoid a contamination of the sensor by the material
under test. This TDT-sensor offers the possibility to
perform time domain transmission measurements without
the necessity of a measuring port at the end of the sensor.

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 materials and their respective permittivities r1 and r2.
This two-point calibration yields the following calibration
factor and the corresponding relation between lobs and
lobs,eff:
Fig. 5 Schematic design and realized prototype of the
described time domain transmission sensor.
Furthermore, this sensor offers a compact design, which
is optimized to be used inside boreholes with a
corresponding diameter.
As already mentioned, multiple reflections have only a
small influence on transmission measurements, because of
the principle of causality. With regard to the described
sensor, multiple reflections are inherently caused by the
different waveguides, but as shown in Fig. 6, these
multiple reflections due not influence the first pulse which
includes the useful signal.
Fig. 6 Measuring signal of the described TDT-sensor.
Due to its compact design, the sensor can be easily
moved inside a borehole to achieve a spatially resolved
dielectric profile.
Additionally, the diameter of the described TDT-sensor
can be changed with regard to particular applications.
Thus, it is possible to scale the diameter down to several
millimeters for the realization of small sensors, which can
directly be inserted into the investigated material,
especially into soil.
IV. ALGEBRAIC ALGORITHM
Accurate permittivity measurements based on delay
time measurements require a precise knowledge of the
length of the measuring path. With regard to the described
TDT-sensor the apparent permittivity a of the surrounding
is determined by using the difference of the measured
delay time tmeas and a reference delay time tref as follows:
D  
H 2  H1
1 l
obs and lobs,eff
t2  t1 c0
lobs . (5)
D
Here t1 and t2 are given by the delay times measured
within the corresponding material.
The relation between the delay time and the apparent
permittivity given in (1) and (4), respectively is based on
the assumption that plane waves are penetrating the
investigated material. With regard to layered materials this
results in the following mixing rule [7] for the
determination of the effective permittivity of a material
with n layers:
H eff X n H n . (6)
n
Here n is given by the volume fraction of the respective
layers and n is the corresponding permittivity. With
regard to the described sensor, nonplanar waves exist at
least in the border areas of the obstacle. Thus, it is
necessary to prove the validity of this mixing rule.
Referring to this, an electromagnetic simulation with the
described sensor inside a layered material is performed. In
this case each layer has a length of 5 cm and the single
permittivities are shown in Fig. 7. A comparison of the
theoretical effective permittivity calculated by (6) and the
effective permittivity resulting from a simulated TDT
measurement is shown in Fig. 7.
Fig. 7: Comparison of the theoretical and the effective
permittivity resulting from TDT simulations of a layered
material.
To obtain the simulation results, the described TDT
sensor is moved inside the layered material with a step
tmeas  tref 
2
width of 1 cm and the effective permittivity is determined
Ha c0  H ref , (4)
l by using (4). Thus, the determined permittivity is given by
obs,eff
the effective permittivity on an effective obstacle length of
where ref is given by the relative permittivity of the
10 cm. As the results show, the simulation results
reference material and lobs,eff represents the so-called
achieved with the TDT-sensor is very close to the
effective obstacle length. Due to the fact, that the
theoretical effective permittivity. Thus, the mixing rule (6)
transmitted electromagnetic pulse penetrates the
is valid for the described sensor design irrespective of the
investigated material in the environment of the obstacle
existing nonplanar waves. Additionally, soils are often an
and in its border areas as well, not the mechanical length
inhomogeneous mixture of several materials which are not
of the obstacle but a so-called effective obstacle length
arranged in single layers. But even in this case (6) yields
lobs,eff is taken into account. This effective obstacle length
precise results as empirically proven in [8].
is determined by a two-point calibration with two known

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 Thus, the apparent permittivity determined by sensor inside a borehole with a step size of 1 cm. In this
performing delay time measurements correlates with the case the surrounding of a borehole, which is modeled as
effective permittivity defined in (6) for homogeneous horizontally placed plastic tube, is filled with dry and
materials as well as for inhomogeneous or layered moist sand. Additionally, two sections are left empty. Fig.
materials. 9 shows the average value of 20 single measurements,
which are performed in every sensor position.
V. MEASUREMENT RESULTS
In the following part measurement results achieved with
the described TDT-sensor are illustrated. In a first
approach the long-time stability and the measurement
accuracy are evaluated. For this purpose the sensor is
placed in a fixed position and the surrounding was filled
with sand with different volumetric water contents,
namely 0 %, 5 %, 10 % vol. and 20 %. For every mixture
the delay time is measured every 30 seconds over a period
of 100 minutes. The resulting apparent permittivities for Fig. 9 Measuring results for a dielectric profile consisting
the different mixtures are shown in Fig. 8. For of air, dry and wet sand.
comparison, measurement results with air as surrounding
are shown as well. As expected, the results show a very smooth behavior.
Furthermore, it can be observed, that multiple reflections
caused by the layered material in the surrounding have
only a small influence on the determined permittivity.

VI. CONCLUSION
The TDT-sensor described in this contribution offers
the possibility to perform time domain transmission
measurements without the necessity of a measuring port at
the end of the sensor. Thus, multiple reflections caused by
inhomogeneities in the surrounding of the sensor have
only small influences on the measured delay time.
Furthermore, the diameter of the described sensor is
scalable with regard to the respective application. Hence,
the sensor is suitable for several applications in layered
materials as well as for the measurement of smooth
permittivity variations. Additionally, spatially resolved
measurements can be performed by displacing the sensor
inside the investigated material.
Fig. 8 Apparent permittivities of sand-water mixtures and
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